Kibaki faces pressure
over 'rigging'
By Steve Bloomfield
Published: 02 January 2008
19:24 Central European Time
Pressure for an inquiry into Kenya's flawed presidential election rose dramatically last night after the chairman of Kenya's electoral commission, Samuel Kivuitu, cast doubt over the validity of President Kibaki's re-election.
"I do not know whether Kibaki won the election," Mr Kivuitu told reporters, just two days after he controversially announced Mr Kibaki's victory.
Mr Kivuitu claimed he had come under sustained pressure from senior Kibaki aides to declare the results, despite his own reservations. He called for an independent inquiry into the election, echoing a call made by five of his commissioners earlier in the day. "We are culprits as a commission," he said. "We have to leave it to an independent group to investigate what actually went wrong."
Mr Kivuitu had been seen as an independent-minded chairman. His term of office was due to expire three weeks before the poll and it was only after a long lobbying campaign by foreign diplomats and civil society groups that Mr Kibaki reappointed him.
However, Mr Kivuitu's actions on Sunday angered many Kenyans. Just half an hour after announcing results which EU observers said were inaccurate, Mr Kivuitu was at State House, cracking jokes at Mr Kibaki's side.
Gordon Brown, who spoke with both Mr Kibaki and Mr Odinga, urged the two men to hold talks.
European Union election observers said the poll had failed to meet " international and regional standards", citing the use of state resources by government candidates, overwhelming bias from state-owned media, and a lack of transparency during the counting process.
The United States, which had initially welcomed Mr Kibaki's victory, retracted its congratulations and issued a two-page statement highlighting " serious problems" including "unrealistically high voter turnout rates " and "apparent manipulation of some election reporting documents" .
The ban on live television and radio broadcasts continued into a third day. While the BBC, CNN and Al Jazeera were reporting the rising death tolls, a local channel, KTN, was showing The Sound of Music.
From The Independent.
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